Happy 3rd Birthday, Jayden!
I didn’t even get much of a change to talk
with Jayden today because Ethan and Ehlana did most of the chatting when we
called to wish him a happy birthday; but I’m sure he’s had a good day – and likely
a more exciting one than we’ve had around here.
The return to warmer weather yesterday and
today has been nice, but the rain isn’t so much fun. Getting a little thunderstorm is probably a
good sign that spring is really here; but we might not totally be in the clear
from a bit more snow here and there quite yet.
Rain didn’t keep me indoors all day, though I wasn’t really out all that
much anyway between home, school, hanging out at the Inn, and back home again
after game night.
Starting the day out with the added
birthday phone call with Jayden and his family was fun, and while that trend
continued all day; there isn’t anything specific happening at school that’s
exciting enough to report here. We seem
to be in the calm before the Easter storm now and there just isn’t that much
going on – at least that I’m involved with.
There are always extra-curricular activities going on around the school,
from sports to clubs of all kinds; but Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I aren’t part of
any of those teams or groups – other than band.
That may sound strange, and some kids and
teens get involved with a lot of activities at school, but keep in mind that we
also have a very small school; and those groups can be very small. Even sports teams can end up with a bare
minimum of players, and there isn’t even a competitive team in some sports
whenever there isn’t enough interest.
While I’m thinking about that, this is a good time to mention that I do
get asked to play team sports occasionally, but haven’t done that yet – other than
summer baseball. I don’t know whether I’ll
do that or not during high school; but I am sure that I want to be very
careful. It’s one thing to play local
baseball, and another to compete in other towns at other schools. Regardless of where we stand with the
Hathornes right now, I still don’t want to draw attention to myself from
outside Witch Falls if I can avoid it.
There’s also the issue of causing problems with some of the other girls if
I did start playing a bunch of the competitive sports at school. Being team ‘stars’ means a lot to some of my
friends, and while I have to hold back at nearly every physical activity I do;
I won’t play to lose or below average for a ‘normal’ girl my age. That’s been a minor issue in baseball, but
would probably be a bigger problem if I started showing up as the best player
on every team in every sport. Even
Carolyn Landry isn’t the best at every sport – and she lives for sports just as
much as her brother does.
I managed to wander off from the planned
update again; so let’s get back on track.
While we kept ourselves entertained all day
at school, the real fun of the day started once we were set free and moved on
to the Inn for our study session.
Rebecca and Jenny joined us for that; and the six of us worked at the
table in the back room for about an hour.
Jenny handled most of the entertainment while we studied; and it almost
felt like old times for a change – a feeling I haven’t felt around Jenny for a
long time now. Most of her stories were
cheerleader-related, but had less to do with the teams the squad cheers for and
was more about the sidelines action. The
only slightly weird part of that was when she talked about boys checking her
out or hitting on her; apparently not even thinking about the fact that Tim and
Michael were doing football training fairly regularly with her boyfriend, and
those comments definitely made them uncomfortable.
Having Jenny study with us wasn’t as big of
a surprise as having her stay to help out in the kitchen instead of leaving
when Tim and Rowen did. The ‘just like old
times’ feeling continued, though, and I really had fun working with Rebecca and
Jenny while Michael mostly worked on the cleaning side of the jobs. She spent some time teasing Michael and me;
though she thought our little hugs and kisses moments were cute. I’d never really thought about that being a
bit like how Jacob and Miranda and Jake and Stephanie work in the kitchen too
until Jenny mentioned it; but then I think that’s quite a compliment.
If there was a specific reason for why
Jenny had felt the need to spend the evening with Rebecca, she didn’t tell me;
but for all I know she could just be thinking ahead to summer job
potential. Whether she is still dating
Garth Green by then or not; I can guarantee that she won’t be looking to work
on farms on in greenhouses. That isn’t a
guess – she’s always been very clear about her lack of interest in anything
farm-related – and even doing gardening and yard work around the house. Okay, I don’t exactly plan on a career in
farming either, and weeding gardens isn’t my favorite job in the world; but I
do like some of the work we always have around the house and yard; and doing
those chores with my family is almost always fun.
And there I go drifting off-course again!
It was a quiet dinner sitting at the Inn,
and that allowed Michael and I to have a longer meal break than usual; though
we ended up working a bit longer in the kitchen after that while Rebecca and
Jenny got to help with setting up for game night. Jenny stayed to play too, and helped Rebecca
to win the junior championship. I don’t
know if having a light turnout for gaming had anything to do with that; but it
might have helped Grandma and Grandpa with winning the senior
championship. That earned them some
teasing about leaving town and going back down south where they belong in the
winter; but I’m fairly sure Grandpa was only joking about actually doing that.
I know that they had thought about going to
Florida after getting back from their family business trip, but they decided
that missing two months of Zack’s early life was enough for right now without
making it three or four months out of his first six. I’m sure that when their grandkids are older
that they’ll be happy to go with their grandparents for trips to Disney and
Universal Studios! Oh wait – I’m already
older! We should definitely talk about
that for next year!
Getting back to now, though; the gaming was
fun, and Michael and I had Ethan and Ehlana entertaining us most of the
evening. I didn’t stay late to help with
the clean-up tonight because Mom wanted to do a big Magi lesson with me when we
got home – after we put the twins to bed.
That took more than an hour and a half, and was fairly strenuous; so I
was ready to go straight to bed once Mom had finished putting me through the
Magi paces. The good news is that I did
get to bed then; and the bad is that I got caught up in a fairly high-priority
family business work project that kept me busy way past my new, self-imposed
nightly work curfew. The only thing I’ll
say about that work is that our family business would be a lot easier to run
without the interference of any governments anywhere. I doubt that an army of Magi Masters could clean
up the messes that governments create around the world. Sometimes, it seems so scary; I have to
wonder if Dark Magi have a hand in the political circles of some
countries. I’m sure that the Hathornes
do to so small extent; but we know from our infiltration of their systems that
they aren’t – at least overtly – involved at the highest levels of
politics. They’re mostly interested in
making sure that government agencies don’t get in the way of their business,
and they deal with that by any means necessary.
The bottom line for tonight is that I
worked on that project until after two and then still needed to do a bit of
language studying too before getting around to my usual nightly computer
checks. It’s a good thing that I had the
extra rest last night; because I’ll only have time for a long nap now. At least I only have one more day until the
weekend!
I have had enough fun for tonight, though,
and don’t have anything else to add to this update, so that’s all for now; and
I’m out of here.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
